Note from 2013: We have come to the fifteenth anniversary of Goldberg’s big WCW world title win over Hollywood Hogan. This was a special night at the time for me as a wrestling fan because I rarely got to stay up for the third hour of Nitro. There was magic in the air, the rumblings of change was there, all the cliches you can think of spouting out. Going into this show though at the time, I did not know Goldberg was getting a title shot until I turned on the program. I was on a road trip with my folks and my brother and had missed the Thunder and any Saturday programming leading up to this show.

Let Us Take You Back to Thunder 7/1/98. JJ Dillon announces that #1 contender Goldberg will indeed face Hollywood Hogan in the Georgia Dome on the following Nitro.

The current WCW champs are as follows:WCW World Champion: Hollywood Hogan (4/20/1998)WCW U.S. Champion: Bill Goldberg (4/20/1998)WCW World Tag Team Champions: The Outsiders (2/22/1998)WCW World Television Champion: Booker T (5/3/1998)WCW Cruiserweight Champion: Chris Jericho (1/24/1998)

BROADCAST NOTE: Due to TNT airing game one of the NBA western conference semifinals between the Seattle SuperSonics and the Los Angeles Lakers, this is only a two-hour broadcast. Since that game starts at 9PM EST, that means Nitro starts an hour earlier than usual at 7PM EST which a scheduling change always makes it difficult ratings-wise for obvious reasons. If your casual viewer doesn’t watch any other WCW programming, then naturally they won’t be aware of the change and will more than likely only tune in for the second hour of Nitro. This fact was strongly represented in the ratings report as the first hour received a 2.53 while the second hour received a 4.45 rating. On Raw is War that went completely unopposed (9PM-11PM EST) for the whole two-hour broadcast, the WWF received a 5.47 rating for the first hour and a 5.54 rating for the second hour. Interestingly enough, the NBA playoffs airing on TNT could not have come at a worst time for WCW.

LAST WEEK: The Beach Bullies (Alex Porteau & Shawn Summers) were about to lose to John Tatum and Rod Price when Summers got his team DQ’ed by spraying Price in the eyes with a Super Soaker. That’s the most 90s thing I’ve seen in a long time. If Summers was REALLY a good bully, that Super Soaker would have been filled with bleach.

Your host is David Webb. Chaz stops by to tell us he’ll be wrestling Steven Dane on the program. Once Chaz tells us he will give his all in that match, Webb runs down the rest of the card for today.Read the rest of this entry →

They kick things off with a video package detailing how beloved the Hart Foundation were on the brief tour of western Canada, and how they expect the reaction to be quite different here tonight in Texas.